


Resin

by Meadow Lion (Meadow_Lion)



Category: Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain (1995)
Genre: Female Friendship, Gen, Romantic Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-20
Updated: 2012-12-20
Packaged: 2017-11-21 19:15:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/601171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meadow_Lion/pseuds/Meadow%20Lion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Thanks to Framlingem for betaing.  Doranwen, I hope you like it!</p>
    </blockquote>





	Resin

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Doranwen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doranwen/gifts).



> Thanks to Framlingem for betaing. Doranwen, I hope you like it!

Jody wrapped her fingers around Beth's where they were warm and tight around furled brown nylon, then slid her own hands to the opposite side and asked Beth, "Ready?"  
  
"Ready," Beth said.  
  
"Okay."  Jody studied Beth's face for a moment, not even sure what she was looking for, but, when that familiar little smile began spreading Beth's lips, Jody nodded and said, "Run!"  
  
She and Beth ran backward away from each other as fast as they could.  The nylon pulled taut.  Still clutching the cloth, they threw their hands above their heads and ran straight toward each other with broadening smiles.  When they were inches apart they dropped suddenly to the ground and tucked the nylon fast under their butts on the dirt.  
  
Giggles had them collapsing into each other.  The parachute billowed high above them, and its dull brown glowed in the afternoon sunlight, so that it was like a bubble of amber surrounding Jody and Beth.  Like they could stay together there forever for some scientist to discover a hundred years later.  
  
Not that Jody wanted to be stuck somewhere, never getting to go on another adventure -- but just being with Beth was kind of its own adventure.  Jody always felt a sense of possibility around Beth, probably because of how Beth had literally crashed into Jody's life on her bike.  
  
At the moment laughter had Beth crashing against Jody, the smooth skin of Beth's shoulders bumping Jody's forehead while Jody tried to get her own giggles under control.  The warm summer air folded under the parachute with them was making Jody a little light-headed, and she made herself lean back away from Beth to gulp in deeper breaths.  
  
"So?" Jody asked on an exhale.  Their knees were still jumbled together like tinder.  
  
Beth's grin was bright but soft, like cotton candy.  Breathlessly, she replied, "Even more fun than you said it would be."  
  
"I knew it!" Jody insisted, even though she really hadn't.  Yeah, she'd hidden herself in the parachute like this before, but it wasn't the same alone as with Beth.  And she was still learning what Beth liked other than Winnie the Pooh and, somehow, Jody herself.  "I thought you might've done a version of it in gym class or something."  
  
"In L.A.?"  Beth sounded incredulous.  
  
Jody shook her head.  "Right, everyone out there was probably too cool for --"  
  
"No!" Beth interrupted.  "No, I mean, we barely even had gym class where I lived.  All the other girls in my class were too afraid of breaking their nails, and Ms. Blanche, our teacher, didn't care enough to make them.  So we just sat around and talked."  
  
"You had a lot of friends out there, huh?  Do you miss them?"  Jody's throat felt a little tight.  She looked past Beth's face, at the parachute sinking down around them.  
  
Beth dipped her head sideways, back into Jody's sightline.  She rolled her eyes, but the expression seemed fond, not condescending.  "I had people I thought were friends, girls I saw movies with and sat with for lunch.  But I didn't have anyone like you, Jody.  There _isn't_ anyone like you."  
  
Jody bit her lip hard to keep her grin from getting too huge.  "There's no one like you either, you know."  
  
Beth grinned back, and just then the nylon slumped fully, brown swathes draping every which way over and between them like dirt settling after an earthquake.  They laughed, and Jody let go of the edges under her to swat the cloth out of the way.  Partly she just didn't want it keeping her from seeing that grin.  
  
Once Beth was in view again, though, she looked curious.  Her hands were resting on her shoulders with big clumps of nylon wrapped around her fingers.  "Where did you get this, anyway?  Did it just happen to blow your way out the door of the hardware store?"  
  
"No, it's -- it was my dad's, from the army."  
  
"Oh," Beth said.  She loosened her grip like she thought she might be holding too hard onto something precious.  
  
"Yeah.  He was in Vietnam."  Unsure what to do with her own balled fists, Jody shrugged one shoulder.  
  
"Wow."  
  
"Only for a couple years, right after our troops really got involved.  I was so young, I didn't even really know he was gone until he'd already come back."  
  
Softly, Beth said, "So he did come back, though?  That's not how he died."  
  
"No.  At least, not really," Jody said.  
  
Jody fixed her eyes over Beth's shoulder again but this time seeing how Beth's fingers kept clenching and releasing in the parachute folds.  She knew Beth would ask, so she made herself go on first.  
  
"He was always good to my mom and me.  He was always nice to us and to everybody else.  But sometimes he'd get really quiet, and wouldn't say a word to us.  It was like he was in outer space and didn't even know anyone else was there.  One day when he was going to work, his car ran off the road and hit a tree.  The police told my mom said it was an accident, but I don't --" Jody hiccuped and realized her throat was clogged with tears, her sight getting blurry.  The blobs that were Beth's fingers dropped the cloth as Beth's arms went around Jody.  
  
"Sorry," Beth murmured.  "I'm sorry, Jody, I didn't know.  I didn't mean to make you tell me all that and make you sad."  
  
Jody shook her head fiercely even though it bumped her snotty nose against the pale purple strap of Beth's tank top.  She swallowed hard so she didn't drool on Beth too, but she had to say, "No, I wanted to.  I've never talked about that with anybody."  
  
Beth's arms tightened.  "I haven't talked about my dad with anyone other than my mom."  
  
The smell of green-apple soap and sweat at Beth's neck somehow made Jody feel like she could breathe again.  She inhaled hard but otherwise didn't move -- didn't want to, and sensed that Beth didn't really want her to either.  What she didn't know was, "Do you want to tell me?"  
  
Beth shuddered.  It felt completely different from how laughter had moved her against Jody's face.  
  
"It's okay," Jody said, meaning it every way she could.  
  
Sighing, Beth rested her cheek on Jody's hair.  "He had a heart attack.  And I do want to tell you more, but not now, okay?  Now let's just make the parachute fly again."  
  
"That sounds good."  Jody's breath reflected off Beth's neck and tickled her own nose, and she reluctantly pulled herself away from Beth.  
  
Beth gave a watery smile that Jody returned as they got to their feet.  Even though she knew Beth understood how this worked now, Jody still slid her hands over Beth's again around the nylon edge.  She met Beth's gaze -- that was enough confirmation this time -- and they both ran backwards, and they flung up their arms and then, always, ran straight toward each other to rebuild their world.

 

 

 - end - 

**Author's Note:**

> What the girls do with the parachute is rather like [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8isaCZEZZY), except because there are only the two of them it billows higher and -- if you'll suspend disbelief in the air with the parachute for a while -- takes longer to fall.


End file.
